The ride was long and grueling, if only because the other ponies kept shooting wary glances Sora's way, some snide and others of loathing and contempt. Starbreaker stayed close to her, sneering at the others with a manic grin and letting off some chilling laughs every so often. Sora sighed and carefully draped a wing over her charge, only to garner a wide-eyed expression in return. "Why must you cradle me with your wing? I'm not a foal," Starbreaker grumbled.

Sora kept a neutral expression as she turned to her charge. "To keep the other ponies off of your tail," she replied.

At that, Starbreaker rose a brow. "'Off my tail?' Whatever do you mean by that?" she queried in a sincere voice.

Sora groaned and narrowed her eyes slightly. "At least half of these ponies would jump you and slice your head off, if given the chance," she replied. She turned to the white unicorn, who shot a glare at the two for all it was worth. "Particularly that one," she added with a snort.

Starbreaker turned to the white unicorn and stuck her tongue out in that direction, prior to blowing a raspberry at her for good measure. This only caused the unicorn to scowl in response. "When I get my front hooves on you, you'll be on your knees begging for mercy!" she cried.

Starbreaker snorted and retracted her tongue before turning back to Sora. "Where are we going?" she queried.

Sora turned away, silent for a few seconds. Then she turned back to her charge and her wing slumped a bit. "To the base," she answered tersely.

"The base?" Starbreaker pressed, her grin at last fading. "Is that… where your squad is?"

Sora nodded. "Affirmative," she answered in a low voice. A red-pelted stallion with purple eyes trotted up to the two, and at this Sora turned to him and pressed her wing closer to Starbreaker's body. "What do you need?" she asked.

The stallion smiled at Sora, and though it seemed sweet it came with a malicious spark in his eyes. "Why're you makin' nice with that damned psychopath?" he asked, his tone mostly sincere but packing an angry note that was impossible to miss. "Hell, you're cuddling her right now with your wing!"

Neither of the stallion's points, Sora could hope to deny. "What of it? Do you have a problem?" she asked in a flat voice.

The stallion's smirk widened, and the two mares caught sight of glinting teeth. He turned to the others and gestured to Sora with a hoof. "Hey, fellas, we got a softy here!" he announced, causing everypony else to turn to the duo and burst out into laughter.

Sora's brow twitched, and so did an eye. Her forehooves trembled, and one pulled back before being stopped by another that wasn't hers. Instantly her eyes widened and she turned to Starbreaker, who looked back with the manic grin once more forming on her face. "What are…"

Starbreaker turned to the stallion, ignoring Sora's half-spoken remark. "Softy, you say? She was anything but," she scoffed.

The stallion turned to her, his eyes widening for a fraction of a second before narrowing immediately after. "And how do you know that, Herald of the Crimson Light?" he asked, this time with an amused note in his voice. He knelt forward and crept closer until his muzzle was inches from Starbreaker's. His voice dropped to a whisper as he asked, "Did you fool around with her?"

Starbreaker responded by angling her broken horn to his face and ramming forward, her grin widening as she felt flesh puncture, blood seeping and trickling all the way to her forehead and bridge, before pulling back and turning to stare at the foolish pony. A series of bleeding small cuts, no bigger than the width of a plastic knife, dotted the area between his upper lip and nostrils.

He stared back at her with wide eyes and clenched teeth, still and silent as a grave. Starbreaker returned the expression with her smile, which now seemed more ferocious thanks to the fresh blood adorning her face. Her technicolor eyes narrowed to slits, and all he could see of them were a purplish-crimson. "I may have tried to destroy the world once, but that does not mean I don't know certain adversaries well enough," she spat scathingly.

"You're just a weakling," Starbreaker went on, grinning maniacally as the stallion winced and trembled with each word she spoke, "and weaklings go on picking fights they cannot win. I was like you, before I'd been stopped from torching everything." He could see pure, unfiltered malice swimming in her narrowed eyes, which bore deep into his soul the longer he stared. He felt compelled, strongly, to look away, yet that malice had paralyzed him onto the spot.

Starbreaker continued, her bloodied smile widening and her voice growing colder and crueler with each and every word she uttered, "Only one pony has withstood my fires; nay, she cleaved through them without getting torched once—" Here, she gestured to Sora with a hoof without breaking eye contact, "—and you couldn't even hold up so much as a strand of mane to that, when everypony else I have ran into turned to nothing but ash. I don't think you'd stand in my flames for one second without screaming for dear life."

The stallion stood up and opened his mouth before he screamed as shrilly as a filly, and immediately turned tail and galloped to the other ponies for safety, but they backed away from him and huddled close to the walls. A pregnant silence fell, and all eyes were on Starbreaker at that moment. She kept her eyes on the now-wounded pony, and as if to warn him, her horn flared to life in stark crimson. The aura held for several seconds before violently popping and dying, causing the other ponies who kept their distance to flinch back with frantic whimpers.

But Sora noticed something about Starbreaker as her horn lit up and held the aura again. Sweat started to bead along her charge's brow as orange and blue fire started to swirl around the jagged stump, her grin began violently warbling and her breathing turned shallow again as the blood on her face sizzled and dried under the flames. Tails bristled, and all eyes widened as they fell onto Sora, who merely sat there and stared back. Everypony, even the unicorn who'd scrutinized her earlier, silently begged her to do something by mouthing frantic commands, yet she may as well have been a statue.

Sora winced as the fire continued to build, warping unsteadily as its light grew and took on a crimson hue that cast itself about the hull. It brightened drastically, shrouding her charge's head in a hellish light befitting her moniker, all the while fire continued to dance. Sora's blades twitched, but she still made no move to stop the disconcerting display. How Starbreaker was able to gather this much power with a broken horn was beyond her. It took two minutes for it to stop growing, in turn heating up the hull to levels that made everypony break out into a sweat, and the glow died with a vicious pop and no other ill effects.

Starbreaker slumped and leaned onto her adversary, trembling as a result of the evident strain whilst motes of ember and ash danced around and faded from existence. Upon seeing this, the other ponies uneasily laughed as though they'd heard a bad joke from a long-time friend. "S-Sora was right, colts," one of them piped up with a distinct quiver in his tone. "The horn don't work!"

Sora's nose wrinkled slightly as the others burst out into unified laughter that bordered on being downright hysterical. She made no move to stand, or flex her wings, or do anything else even remotely of the sort. Instead, she silently let Starbreaker rest her head on her shoulder, and barely suppressed a sigh as soon as the vessel became quiet once more.

Nopony else dared to confront them for the rest of the ride, during which Sora simply lost track of time and took to minding her own business. Her eyelids started feeling heavier with every passing minute, and she opened her mouth to yawn widely. She blinked drowsily, and her ears twitched as she heard Starbreaker mumble incoherently. "Must've fallen asleep. Can't blame her," she thought, averting her gaze to find that her charge had indeed closed her eyes and let her breathing take a slow and rhythmic pattern.

Time dragged on, and Sora had just nestled her head between her forelegs when the vessel suddenly shook like it was hit with a boulder. She jerked up and glanced around before sighing as the flap at the back opened, followed immediately by the roar of the engines dying down altogether, giving way to a silence that was short-lived.

Hoofsteps echoed all around as the other ponies trotted to the now-opened backside, their steps harried and their paces brisk. The stallion who had a small portion of his face mutilated paused to kick Starbreaker right under her tail, garnering a strangled yelp as she jolted awake from the assault. "Payback's a bitch, ain't it?" he taunted, trotting away and laughing before Sora could even turn to glare at him.

Sora ignored him and instead turned to her charge. "Did he hurt you?" she queried.

Starbreaker took a few seconds to recover from the shock of effectively being kicked in the nethers before shaking her head. "Just… was never touched there," she replied in a soft voice, her lone ear folding back as a blush spread on her face. She turned to Sora with narrowed eyes and asked, "Can I burn him later?"

Sora donned a small smile. "That's assuming I don't slice his legs off first," she chirped, spreading her wings and standing up. Starbreaker yawned and shook her head as she rose up onto her hooves, flinching a bit when the hairs of her tail touched where she'd been kicked at. "I'm going to check to see if a bruise forms back there later. We got some medics to meet."

Starbreaker nodded and turned to the back of the hull, but she let Sora do likewise and watched as she trotted ahead. She followed once her foe had walked a few paces to the back of the hull, lifting her tail like a flag to avoid agitating her now-aching area any further.

As soon as they disembarked the vessel and found themselves on an expansive runway made of metal, Sora stopped and spread one wing before angling its blades forwards. "Look forward, then up," she commanded. Starbreaker looked ahead and tilted her head up and saw a distant structure that looked as if it was built to reach the sky.

It was crafted like a semi-hollow cube with a dome slapped atop, with a tower erected in its middle to hold it up, and a pole on top of that which jutted out like a lance for good measure. It was entirely steel-grey, and from what she could see of the structure, it was well-built and possibly even bustling with life. Around the whole thing, a circular wall rose up, and seemingly constructed upon it in a slant was what appeared to be a city composed of tall buildings, although they were dwarfed in comparison. "That's the base of the Umbralium Corps," Sora announced, craning her neck to look at her charge. "Hop on my back."

Starbreaker turned back to Sora, a brow raised. "Is it going to be like last time?" she asked warily.

Sora shook her head. "No, because you'll be able to cling to me from behind better. That, and it'll lessen the chances of me cutting you by mistake," she answered.

Starbreaker's brow rose an inch higher. "Are you certain of that?" she pressed, taking a single hesitant step forward.

Sora nodded. "Just hop on," she beckoned. Starbreaker stood still for a few seconds before trotting over as her foe sat on her rump. She tried to climb aboard but found it cumbersome to position herself properly because a bladed wing remained closed, making it nigh-impossible to jostle without accidentally cutting herself in the process.

Starbreaker—after some quick-second attempts that all ended with her face on the pavement, some small lacerations on a back pastern, and a bloody nose—groaned in annoyance. She lifted her head and leveled a glare at Sora. "Your other wing," she mumbled indignantly, raising a hoof to gesture to the anomaly in question.

Sora blinked and turned to her side, only to find that said wing was still closed, dotted with fresh blood to boot. She spread it, and shifted both wings so that they pointed straight outward from her body. Starbreaker nodded and got up, taking a few seconds to rub her now-bleeding snout with a hoof before clambering upon her quarry, and this time she managed to position herself rather snuggly. When the wings flapped after she got settled, she brought her forehooves up to Sora's barrel and held tight, flinching when her adversary stood up shortly afterwards.

After a few more flaps, the two were airborne and ascending fast. Sora made sure to flap as minimally as possible, choosing instead to ride even the smallest updraft that came and went to get closer to the base. Starbreaker looked to her left as she was carried up, seeing vast mountains and forests dot a distant landscape. Turning to the sky past that, she found that the sun was starting to poke out and it cast everything in a bright orange light that gleamed off of the wing-blades like liquid fire.

She watched as the sun continued to rise almost in perfect tandem with Sora's still-climbing altitude. After a few minutes it became too bright for her to look at, and so she turned her attention back to the base. Her eyes widened as she realized that now, it was much closer than before. Sora kept flying, already making a smooth arc over the great wall with such ease that Starbreaker almost found it laughable.

A smile crossed her face, one of manic proportions; though this time it came with an amused, almost joyous sparkle in her eyes. She began to giggle before the sound evolved into a mad cackle, and this went on for a minute before it stopped when her stomach growled with enough force to slightly shake both ends of her body.

Then, Sora spoke up, having felt the rumble on her back. "Hungry, I assume?" she asked.

Starbreaker shrugged, but her stomach growled again. "I need fuel to burn things, so…"

Sora nodded. "Alright. I'll see if I can get you some food," she stated, turning her attention to the small dome-like structure at the top of the hollow cube. Going higher and higher still, hastened by coming and going updrafts, the two flew on for another few minutes until they caught sight of a launch pad big enough to fit three of the winged vessels they rode in on. It protruded out of the dome slightly, with red lights ablaze like a flashing neon sign; Sora angled herself and her wings folded, though they never fully closed as she started to descend down towards the pad rather lazily.

Inching closer and closer, Starbreaker could see that there were some ponies assembled on the pad already, and she pressed her forehooves a little tighter on Sora's barrel as she saw more gleaming blades here and there. "Who are they?" she asked.

"Dunno," Sora replied, eyes narrowing slightly as wind began battering at her face in spite of her slow pace. Getting closer to the pad, she could make out white uniforms and a longcoat of the same color, but their owners' features were a little on the hazy side. She could already spot a silver mane and a pale blue pelt amongst the lot, accompanied by two dots that glinted in the sun's morning rays.

"Sora! I wasn't expecting you to be back already!" the pony with the silver mane called out, sporting a voice distinctly masculine and rather high-pitched in tone. Sora smiled and quickened her descent, outstretching her front hooves as the ponies below immediately took a mile's worth of paces away from the center of the launch pad. Within minutes, she landed smoothly on all four hooves, keeping her wings spread to hold her passenger in place.

A young unicorn stallion with that paradoxically-silver mane, a blue pelt, and the white longcoat trotted to them with small round-rimmed glasses gently bouncing upon the bridge of his muzzle. He smiled fondly at Sora, his baby blue eyes glittering with a mixture of joy and pride. Starbreaker noted there was a scar of some sort on his left cheek, bereft of fur to reveal a suspiciously brown spot where that fur should have been, and that he conspicuously wore a black shirt and pants beneath his longcoat. "For you, this is record time. You'd normally take weeks to get back from a patrol. Did you rush tonight's go-around, perhaps?" he chirped.

Sora used a wing to gesture to the now-distant runways, nodding as she did so. "Went back to the ship to save myself a lot of hassle," she replied. "Oh, and Yukito, before I forget… look who I brought with me."

Yukito's brow rose, and he trotted closer before pausing as Sora simply let her head droop to her barrel so he could see Starbreaker. His smile faded and his eyes went wide upon seeing the dried blood on her face, and he immediately fell silent. He trotted around Sora with his horn glowing a pale blue, using the resulting aura to lower her wing and see Starbreaker's symbol. He gulped loudly. "You weren't kidding. That cutie mark's about sealed it. This is the real deal here," he stated in a tense, low voice.

Sora flapped the wing grappled by the aura to shake it off and make it dissipate. "We'll need to chat about what to do with her, considering she's powerless and all," she responded flatly.

Yukito nodded, briefly turning to the lacerations on Starbreaker's rear pastern. "Well, she is effectively a war criminal…" He sighed and lifted a hoof to adjust his glasses before trotting around to face Sora directly. He waited until she lifted her head up to look at him before he said, "But, as I see it, also a victim."

Sora's brow rose. "Of what?" she queried.

Yukito shook his head rather glumly. "Of both the war… and herself, as it were. I heard your entire quibble with her over the microphone tacked to your ear last night. Frankly, I'm amazed she's still alive and kicking," he replied, turning to one end of the launch pad that was anchored squarely to the dome-like structure. "Let's come inside and further discuss it with the medics."

Sora turned to glance at the other ponies on the launch pad, seeing a few pegasi who still kept their distance. "Those the medics?" she asked.

"No. I just had them on standby, in the event you crash-landed," Yukito replied. He started trotting to the dome structure. "Let's not dally anymore."

Sora nodded and briefly craned her neck as far as she was able to look at Starbreaker. "Any particular preference, food-wise?" she asked.

Starbreaker merely shrugged. "Anything'll do," she answered.

Sora nodded and turned to where Yukito was going before going after him with a slightly-harried pace. She folded her wings as close as she could without cutting into her charge's back legs as she went and the other ponies on the launchpad began to follow after them in brisk trots. As they got closer, they found a wide-open door-like frame leading within, with two ponies stationed on either side, seemingly as guards. One had blue eyes, a matching pelt, and a red mane and the other was pink-bodied with a purple mane and eyes of amber. Both had spread wings which Starbreaker found also sported blades similar to Sora's as they got closer.

The two angled their wings to block Yukito, causing him to stop in his tracks. Sora did likewise, brow furrowing at the two ponies who decided to block the entrance. "What are you doing with that criminal?" the blue-pelted pony asked with eyes set on Starbreaker.